Two activists from campaign group Just Stop Oil appeared in court on Saturday after throwing tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s famous “Sunflowers” painting in London’s National Gallery on Friday.
After dumping two cans of soup over the painting, the protesters also glued themselves to the gallery wall. They were removed by specialists and taken into custody, according to the London Metropolitan Police.
“What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people? The cost of living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis, fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup,” one activist said, as video footage of the event shows.
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said the group’s intention was to generate publicity and “create debate” around the climate crisis and the actions needed to stop it.
“That’s not true,” Doug Sheridan, managing director and founder of EnergyPoint argued in a LinkedIn post.
“We know what fostering debate looks like, and this isn’t it. This is mindless acting out by young climate zealots with no interest in debating anything. They are neither right nor justified. Few vandals ever are,” he said.
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Earlier this month, UK’s North Sea Transition Authority, which is in charge of maximising the country’s economic gains from oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, began awarding new licenses for companies conducting underwater fossil fuel exploration.
The issuance of such licenses had previously been put on hold in 2020 as the government said it was establishing a “climate compatibility check.” After being elected prime minister in September, Conservative leader Liz Truss and her business and energy minister Jacob Rees-Mogg announced that the process would resume.